The new Medicare card. Interested? I am.

To start off, I am blogging about it today for a special reason. I’ll get to that in a minute. Patience, please. First it’s important to review some basic facts about Medicare.
Medicare, as you know, has become a birthright for any American turning 65.
Medicare is so important, so essential at least for us older folks, that any change in it is must reading. Like right now.
Close to 6o million of us are receiving a new card. Why?
Until now we have used our social security number. No more. The new cards give each of us a unique new number. It’s all about assuring better privacy and security, we’re told.
I’ve already gotten mine. Most of you reading this are older folks. If you haven’t gotten yours yet, it’s coming.

Do you know the idea of a national social insurance program goes back more than a hundred years?
Back in 1912 President Teddy Roosevelt pushed to get one enacted. For all Americans, not just older ones. It didn’t happen.
More than 20 years went by. In 1945 President Harry S Truman tried hard to get it passed, again for all Americans. He failed.
President John F. Kennedy tried. Failed.
President Lyndon B. Johnson got it finally enacted back in 1965 as a core part of his Great Society roll-out. But just for Americans 65 and older. That’s the best he could manage.

But finally, finally we had a national social security program! What a godsend to people facing retirement and old age!
President Johnson signed it into law in Independence, Missouri, the home town of President Truman. And he presented the first card to President Truman. Very fitting.
It’s important to mention other countries already had such a program, even more ambitious. And numerous countries do today, again some providing far wider coverage.
Ours has been tweaked many times. For some time now it has been made available to people under 65 who have dire health problems. That helps many.
It’s amazing the list of new changes and features that have been introduced. Obamacare is a dramatic one we’re all familiar with, and is severely threatened right now, as we know.

Finally, friends, here’s my special reason for blogging about it today. It’s the remarkable new language translation service being offered to those of us whose English isn’t up to par.
There are many of us in that fix. We can be assisted in 13 other languages by government translators. And the service is free. I was so struck by this offer that I read it twice. Fantastic, I thought. Wonderful!
Medicare is run by our US Department of Health and Human Services.
Here are the precise words of its offer to us:
“If you, or someone you are helping, has questions about Medicare, you have the right to get help and information in your language at no cost. To talk to an interpreter, call 1 800 MEDICARE (1 – 800 – 633 – 42227).”
Wow!
Then it went on to say that very same thing in each of those 13 languages.
They are listed alphabetically. Here they are:
Armenian, Chinese – Traditional, French, German, Haitian Creole, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Tagalog, and Vietnamese.

Tagalog — that’s one I’m not familiar with. Turns out it’s the language of the Philippines.

So why do I consider this offer fantastic?
First, again we are told it’s our right. I didn’t know that. Did you? I don’t think that’s covered in our Constitution. But I do like the idea.
And second, without saying so explicitly, the agency is telling us that we have enough people entitled to a Medicare card who speak those languages that it’s smart to provide it.
And of course the reason they’re entitled is they came to our shores from a country using one of those languages, or their ancestors did. I applaud that. Imagine the headache of many without this help.
Yet I would find it more interesting to see those languages also listed by their popularity – how many of our people use each of those 13.
Which would be number one? Which number two? Which number three? Well, I’m guessing. But my hunches are so wild I’m not telling. What do you think?
And surely there are many folks using languages beyond those 13. I’d enjoy seeing those, too. How fascinating it would be to see how incredibly and amazingly diverse we are.
And what a wake-up reminder that would be — that each and every one of us, with the sole exception of Native Americans, is an immigrant, or a descendant of immigrants. In this, I truly believe no other country in the world can match us.
And think of the $$$ it’s costing to provide this new service — the many expert translators and whatever else is involved.

And suddenly strangely – well, not so strangely — I thought of the Statue of Liberty. You know, that big, famous, impressive, iconic statue on the tiny Island at the entrance to New York Harbor. A gift of the people of France to us.
The statue everybody on any ship coming in can get to see. Which some air passengers also can if they’re lucky enough to be sitting on the right side of the plane.
But what all those people don’t see are the famous words being proclaimed by the Lady as she holds up the torch of Hope, Freedom, and Liberty as high as she can.
The words are preserved on a small engraving on its base. Unfortunately only tourists who visit the statue get to see them. Many visit the statue as a sort of pilgrimage. I’ve never made it there.
The words are part of a poem penned by Emma Lazarus at that time.

Fancy language. We’re not used to reading words like that any more. But its meaning is clear. It describes the people being welcomed back then. As we know, many, many seeking to get in today fit that definition.

Well, immigrant ship after immigrant ship over many years has passed right by the statue before unloading the newcomers at Ellis Island — which was the “golden door” for so many thousands of them.
But most of them have arrived through other points all around the country, and still are. On the north and the east and the south and the west. Many by air. Many by train, bus, car. Many by walking in. Many sneaking in, as we know. And more are coming, or trying, every day. At grave risk, even death.
So they never get to see the Statue of Liberty. Many have never even heard of it. Still they come driven by a dream of Freedom, Liberty, and Prosperity. In simple words, for a better life for themselves and their children. Cost what it will.

So no wonder I thought of the Trump White House. How could I not?! How our wild and compulsively tweeting windbag president is campaigning loud and relentlessly to slam shut the golden door. Haranguing to lock out so many that he deems unfit. Even by putting up walls. Even by kicking those who succeed back out.
Well, he grew up in New York City. Of course he is familiar with the Statue of Liberty. For sure he has visited it. I doubt he is familiar with that poem. But certainly he knows what the statue symbolizes.
Now he is feverishly pounding away to blot out, rub out that core belief — the one that has made our country the biggest and most mighty and important and admired democracy in the whole world. No wonder so many want in.

And what exactly has made ours the most mighty and important and admired democracy in the world? It’s by inviting people of diverse races and languages and cultures and religions to take shelter here. And settle here. And pitch in any way they can. And prosper here.
That isn’t malarkey. It’s a fact proclaimed by historian after historian.
How many other countries have offered such a dynamic and successful come-on-in invitation?
Darn few.

Why do you ignore this, Mr. Trump?
You yourself are a descendant of immigrants! Your grandfather was born in Germany! Your Mom was born in Scotland! Your first wife was an immigrant! Your second wife was from immigrants! Your third wife is an immigrant!
Come on! What you’re preaching is un-American!

Excuse me, friends, for getting so excited. Couldn’t help myself.

Please do give all this some thought the next time you use your new Medicare card.
And do think of Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Harry S Truman and Lyndon B. Johnson and Barack Obama. They labored and fought hard to give us the national medical health program that is now our right. And our godsend, as limited as it is.

Roosevelt was a Republican, but a Progressive Republican. The three others were straight-out Democrats, of course. Trump is a Republican, but embarrassingly so to many in that party.

Yet, God Bless America!

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As always, I welcome your comments. Feel free to forward this to anyone who might be interested.